SCEA denies 60GB PS3 phaseout rumor, but Kaz Hirai confirms it

Earlier, we reported that the 60GB PlayStation 3, recipient of the highly-lauded US$100 price cut, is pretty much going to be phased out, with Sony just waiting for current stocks to disappear from store shelves. Now, in a rather surprising turn of events, we find out that even though Sony Computer Entertainment America stepped in to deny the phasing-out of the US$ 499 SKU, Kaz Hirai himself has just now confirmed that the 60GB PS3 will indeed be done away with.

Confused? Don’t be. Here’s what’s happened so far: David Reeves of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) commented that the US$ 100 markdown in the 60GB SKU’s price tag is merely SCEA‘s plan to clear store shelves of any remaining SKU of that memory capacity.

Once supplies have run out due to the sudden increase of demand, the only remaining SKU available will be the 80GB PlayStation 3, which is pretty much back to square one for potential Sony buyers(US$ 599). SCEA, upon finding out about David Reeves’ statement, thoroughly denies it in their PlayStation US blog.

As we announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August and a 60GB PS3 available now for US$ 499. We will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future.

Reading SCEA’s statement (actually Senior Director of Corporate Communications’ Dave Karraker’s), they’re saying that they’ll have ample supplies to meet the needs of consumers in the foreseeable future. So that would mean no drastic shortages in, say, a year or two?

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Earlier, we reported that the 60GB PlayStation 3, recipient of the highly-lauded US$ 100 price cut, is pretty much going to be phased out, with Sony just waiting for current stocks to disappear from store shelves. Now, in a rather surprising turn of events, we find out that even though Sony Computer Entertainment America stepped in to deny the phasing-out of the US$ 499 SKU, Kaz Hirai himself has just now confirmed that the 60GB PS3 will indeed be done away with.

Confused? Don’t be. Here’s what’s happened so far: David Reeves of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) commented that the US$ 100 markdown in the 60GB SKU’s price tag is merely SCEA‘s plan to clear store shelves of any remaining SKU of that memory capacity.

Once supplies have run out due to the sudden increase of demand, the only remaining SKU available will be the 80GB PlayStation 3, which is pretty much back to square one for potential Sony buyers(US$ 599). SCEA, upon finding out about David Reeves’ statement, thoroughly denies it in their PlayStation US blog.

As we announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August and a 60GB PS3 available now for US$ 499. We will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of consumers for the foreseeable future.

Reading SCEA’s statement (actually Senior Director of Corporate Communications’ Dave Karraker’s), they’re saying that they’ll have ample supplies to meet the needs of consumers in the foreseeable future. So that would mean no drastic shortages in, say, a year or two?

That also pretty much denies anything about a phase-out of the $499 model, right? Now here’s Kaz Hirai himself, his statement taken from an interview video from Scandinavian website VGTV.

[We do not] have a 2 SKU strategy in the U.S., we learned very quickly customers respond better to having one SKU than two. We dropped the price on the 60GB model, as you know that model is no longer in production, once it’s no longer on store shelves it will just be the US$ 600 SKU.

How do you like them apples? Kaz pretty much confirmed what David Reeves said in E3, as well as disproving Dave Karraker. Certainly confusing news, coming from the different departments of Sony itself – but with Kaz Hirai confirming it, this pretty much means that the US$ 599 price tag will be making its return as the only choice of Sony fans.

We’ll be here to update on you on developments regarding this somewhat-mixup between SCEA, SCEE and Kaz. In the meantime, you can check out the video by clicking on the source link below.